Here are some books I read along the road. I don’t know how you have it but I hardly find time – or more truly, I don’t take the time – to read a books while I’m at home. The fact that you probably also have more time will you are traveling makes it easier to grab once in a while a book and lay some were – lets say in a hammock on the beach – and read a book.

More for me, so I can remember the books I read, I make this list but you are more then welcome to have a look and maybe get inspired to read one or an other. I’m also more then pleased to get inputs from you about books you enjoyed to read. Who knows I might find the time – taking the time – to read them. If you like to do so pleas send my a mail to [email protected]

Seven Years in Tibet

by Heinrich Harrer, read in India, July 2002

From the Internet:
Heinrich Harrer is an expert mountaineer from Austria who is in Asia at the outbreak of World War 2. He is sent to a camp in India, and after repeated attempts he escapes. He makes his way into Tibet, travelling through extremely dangerous areas with little equipment and resources, to avoid discovery and capture. Tibet is well known for not accepting visitors freely, yet with luck and bravado Harrer and his friend end up staying in the capital city, Lasa, as guests of the state.

They act as advisers to the government and Harrer becomes tutor of the child God-King, who happens to be the current Dalai Lama. Harrer makes his home in Tibet, not eager to return to a damaged Europe, until the Chinese invade Tibet and he is forced to flee.

Harrer was the first Westerner able to study Tibetan culture and society, and he made the most of this opportunity. The book give real insight into Tibet and the current situation, and also about the life of the Dalai Lama.

Things fall apart

by Chinua Achebe, read in Nepal, September 2002

This book was recommended and given to me by Andy, a New Zealand friend we trekked in Nepal around the Anapurna’s. The story plays somewhere in Africa at the time the white people started to ‘modernize’ the country. The main person is men how got to honor within his tribe and thought about how good his life was. The things started to change – started to fall apart – and his life was not as it had been before.

It is somehow a easy book to read but somehow you can also get a deeper meaning out of it, since the story can easily be transformed in our world. I think for most people it is not easy to accept changes, especially if there are not for the own benefit.

The Celestine Prophecy

by James Redfield, read in Nepal, September 2002

From the Internet:
The narrator sets out on a trip to Peru to try to discover more about an ancient Peruvian Manuscript that holds 9 Insights into the way the human race will evolve spiritually in the third millennium. The Manuscript is being suppressed by the Church and Government in Peru. Dogged by soldiers the American tourist moves on his adventure to discover in turn each of the Insights. More than an adventure this book is a guidebook to help you yourself discover a more spiritually aware evolution. The Insights describe how we are in the process of a new world view, show that the universe is a vast system of energy and that human conflict is a shortage of and a manipulation for this energy. They show how we can end this conflict by receiving an inpouring of this energy from a higher source. They show how we can end our childhood ingrained control dramas. They show how we set in motion the evolution of our true selves through question, intuition and answer. Staying within this magic flow is the secret to happiness. They show how to relate in a new way to others, bringing out the best in them and keeping the mystery operating and the answers coming. And finally how humans will evolve in the third millennium to vibrate at higher and higher energy levels.

More about this inspiring guidebook / adventure can be found at the celestine website: www.celestinevision.com

Lord of the Ring

by J.R.R Tolkien, read in , Autumn 2002/Spring 2003

Well this is probably one of the classic one. Like many people I got inspired by the movie (I haven’t seen part two yet) and so I started to read it. First I was deterrence by the size of the book – better said the three books. In the beginning it was also not that easy to understand all the things about Hobbits, Orcs …. but after a while I got into it and I enjoyed to read about the adventure from Frodo and consort. At the end I felt like a criticism I once read “…. i is great story, but it is just to short”.

The day after tomorrow

by Allan Folsom, read in China/Laos, 2002/2003

This book I picked up in the Tashi II restaurant after having one of there famous cheese cake, WAU there were good. Anyway, I intended to get the book ‘Into thin air’ but that had gone while we were eating our cheese cake. So I looked at the other books an picked that one and I did not regret it. Though the plot of the book is a standard novel-plot – American gets to Europe, falls in love and get involved in a conspiracy – I could not fully understand till about page 499 what really went on. I was packed by that book, although there were parts were I thought that enough people got killed and houses blown up. However, I think it is really catching book, though nothing for persons who don’t like reading about people get killed.

The Loop

by Nicholas Evans, read in Laos/Cambodia, January/March 2003

Maya picked this book up, I’m not sure whether it was also in Tashi II after a other piece of this delightful cheese cake (can you tell that I miss that? Well, thinking about it I really do – it was so good). It is by the same author who wrote ‘The horse whisper’. Like ‘The horse whisper’ it plays also in the American Rockies and tells the interest conflict between people who protect the reintroduced wolfs and framers who like there cattle being protected from the wolfs. It is very nicely written and a great pleaser to read.

Sushi for beginners

by Marian Keyes, read in Africa, January 2004

From the Internet:
Sushi for Beginners focuses on various characters in third person narrative. Set in Dublin, Lisa, an ambitious Londoner, has been given the task of launching a new fashion magazine for Irish women. After she somewhat recuperates from the initial culture shock, she meets some rather eccentric characters at work. She decides she dislikes Ashling, the sweet deputy editor, and develops a crush on Jack Devine, the Managing Director and notorious maverick. What develops is a tale of betrayal, deceit and heartbreak. One of these people is on the verge of a nervous breakdown… Who will it be?

Burmese Days

by George Orwell, read in Myanmar (Burma), April 2003

From the Internet:
“One of George Orwell’s earliest novels, Burmese Days was first published in 1934. It is a passionately felt indictment of imperialism as he experienced it as a Burma Police Officer. Flory, a timber merchant, has educated himself to a point of self-disgust and acute horror of the other English people in a small town in Upper Burma. Then Elizabeth Lackersteen arrives in Kyauktada to stay with her uncle. Flory sees in her a chance to escape from his drunken, womanizing bachelordom…but he reckons without the wiles of U Po Kyin, the magistrate, the jealousy of a scheming ex-mistress, and above all, the cold opportunism of Elizabeth herself…”

Die blinden Kinder von Lhasa, Mein Weg fuehrt nach Tibet

by Sabriye Tenberken, read in Koh Chang, Thailand, April 2003

The true story tells about the experience a blind women made wile she traveled through China and Tibet. Here idea was to help the blind children in Tibet. Those children are counted to be possessed of evil spirits and hidden in dark rooms or tied to there bed. The book tells also about the problems and prejudice blind person encounter in the western world. Truthfully a book I can recommend anyone who is interested in Tibet and the case of the blind people there. But is also a good book just to read like that.
It is published by www.kiwi-koeln.de

Traumfaenger

by Marlo Morgan, (American original publishing ‘Mutant Message Down Under’), read in Koh Chang, Thailand, April 2003

The story tells about a women who followed a job offer and went for a few years to work in Australia. There she get in contact with the Aborigines and helped them to start a business. As a reward for here achievements she got an invitation from a Aborigines tribe. Instead of the expected nice buffet she ended up walking through the Australian Outback and eating ants without chocolate sauce. A great book just for reading it and being amazed about what can happen just like that. But this true story has also a message from the ‘True People’ about life and our western understanding of it.

This list is not complete and I forgot the names of some authors. I had it written down on a nice paper but I can’ find it anymore. This is also a reason I made this list, so I don’t have to take care of all my little papers.